Amazon's latest idea may make online shopping even easier

In the wake of the frantic Black Friday, shoppers are clicking their way to more deals with Cyber Monday. It's an easy way to buy products and find the deals. And that easiness may increase with Amazon's latest idea.

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By Herb Scribner

The Repository

By Herb Scribner

Posted Dec. 2, 2013 at 6:13 PM

By Herb Scribner

Posted Dec. 2, 2013 at 6:13 PM

In the wake of the frantic Black Friday, shoppers are clicking their way to more deals with Cyber Monday. It's an easy way to buy products and find the deals.
And that easiness may increase.
On Sunday, a day ahead of the Internet's largest shopping day, Amazon.com unveiled Prime Air, "a futuristic delivery system that the company says will get packages into customers' hands in half an hour or less, delivered via unmanned aerial vehicles," according to The Los Angeles Times. The company said the service could be realized by December 2015, according to Yahoo News.
In a quick video clip by Bloomberg, Amazon's vision is depicted, where a shopper is delivered a package by an unmanned drone.
Skeptics have raised concerns about the drone possibilities, according to Quartz, a digital news outlet. Some of the bigger issues with the drones revolve around them crashing into other things, and whether or not commercial drones will be legalized.
"For now, though, the U.S. Postal Service, DHL, UPS and FedEx are certain to employ plenty of real-life humans for many years to come," wrote Heather Timmons for Quartz.
But Brad Stone from Business Week finds Amazon's drones a great idea, but not necessarily for its delivery capabilities.
"The aerial drone is actually the perfect vehicle - not for delivering packages, but for evoking Amazon's indomitable spirit of innovation," reported Business Week. "Many customers this holiday season are considering the character of the companies where they spend their hard-earned dollars. Amazon would rather customers consider the new products and inventions coming down the pipeline and not the ramifications of its ever-accelerating, increasingly disruptive business model."
Online shopping is becoming more of a convenience for people, as shoppers no longer have to leave their homes to find a bargain. The quickness of online shopping as risen, too, Amazon recently announced it will begin delivering on Sundays in conjunction with the United States Postal Service.
And the movement towards online buying isn't slowing down. The National Retail Federation, which keeps track of shopping numbers year round, said about 131 million shoppers plan to buy on Cyber Monday, which is a 2 million more shoppers than last year.
"Despite record-breaking online shopping Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, holiday shoppers aren't done yet; we expect Cyber Monday to be bigger than ever," said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay in a statement.
Cyber Monday may not end so early this year, either, according to the Associated Press. "Cyber Monday seems to have stretched into Cyber Week or even Cyber Month, with retailers from Amazon to Wal-Mart rolling out online deals since the beginning of November," reported the AP.
CyberMonday.com, the official Cyber Monday website, offers several different deals from across the Web. ABC News posted its top 11 Cyber Monday deals, including offers at Best Buy, Starbucks, Macy's and other online retailers.
But all the online shopping hasn't affected the stock market, according to USA Today, which reported on the early numbers. Stocks were "basically flat" early Monday, USA Today reported.%3Cimg%20src%3D%22http%3A//beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif%3Fcid%3D128282%26pid%3D46%22%20/%3E